1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a composition for sealing and healing wounds, comprising a collagen carrier, a fibrinogen component and a thrombin component. The invention is also concerned with a method for the treatment of wounds which comprises administering such a composition to the wound.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known that collagen, which is an essential protein of connective tissue, may be used for the treatment of wounds. Collagen may be isolated from, for example, animal hides and sinews by physical and chemical methods, can be modified by such methods, and can be applied to a wound as a sheet, web or foam of collagen as disclosed in United Kingdom Pat. No. 1,205,609.
Moreover, it is known that local stoppage of bleeding, and tissue bonding, may be achieved with blood clotting factors, such as fibrinogen, thrombin and blood clotting factor XIII.
The use of a combination of fibrinogen and collagen to stop bleeding in heart surgery has been described in Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift 7, 86 to 89 (1976). Admittedly, the use of this combination is time-consuming and expensive in material: freeze-dried human fibrinogen is warmed to 37.degree. C., applied to a collagen web and there caused to clot by addition of an aqueous solution of thrombin and an aqueous solution of factor XIII, after which the collagen is pressed, with the face carrying the fibrin thus formed, onto the bleeding spot. However, it is difficult to find the right point in time for transferring this material onto the wound. If it is transferred too early, the clotting factors run into areas where they are not desired, for example, into blood vessels, whilst if the material is transferred too late, adequate conglutination no longer takes place. In order to be able to react to unexpected hemorrhaging during surgery, it is necessary at all times to have ready a sufficiently large amount of fibrinimpregnated collagen, which is then often not used and must be thrown away.
The material for healing wounds which is described in United Kingdom patent application No. 2,023,614 A and which comprises blood coagulation factor XIII and thrombin fixed per se does not solve this problem, since the material does not contain the fibrinogen also needed for blood coagulation, so that the material is unsuitable for use in, for example, consumptive coagulopathy.